The Founders Contemplate Modern America

What would our nation’s founders think of how the country looks today? CNN didn’t just idly wonder about it, they went out and conducted a survey. The results are shown here
   http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/04/us.poll/index.html
under the headline “Most say Founding Fathers wouldn’t be impressed”.

The key result: “69 percent of adult Americans who responded to a poll June 26-29 said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out overall.”

But most Americans are woefully ignorant of history. They tend to lump the Founders together into one monolithic morass, as if they were all indistinguishable. Nothing could be further from the truth, and in fact their opinions would have varied widely about the state of affairs in modern America:
 • Monetarists like Alexander Hamilton and wealthy businessmen like John Hancock would probably have been delighted.
 • Opportunists like Aaron Burr would have been gratified.
 • Idealists — like John Adams and the Virginians George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison — would have been appalled.
 • And Ben Franklin, as always, would have been amused.